1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to test equipment and simulators. More particular, the present invention system relates to a novel, universal module used as a major component of a simulator or in test equipment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Equipment used for testing printed circuit boards are known wherein probe points (or a bed of nails probe) are physically engaged with points to be tested on the printed circuit board to create electrical connections which are coupled to computerized test equipment. Such test equipment is capable of determining which points are connected to other points which may be compared with a predetermined format to determine if the circuit conforms to a predetermined design. This type of test equipment requires a large amount of computing power as the number of test points is increased. Beyond a few thousand points the time required for processing the data sensed becomes exponentially large. A printed circuit board with a thousand points presently requires minutes to process.
Simulators used for operations and/or maintenance of equipment are well known. Typical complex examples are aircraft and satellite communication equipment simulators which have a very large number of test interconnection points. Presently such complex equipments are provided with no more than several thousand test points, thus, even with large computing power computers a sequence of procedures of two thousand tests points now requires several minutes. If the equipment under test is in a static mode such testing can be accomplished, however, such prior art equipment is not capable of dynamic, real time simulation or tests.
Dynamic test equipment for semiconductor devices which provides emulation of inputs and sensing of the expected results is known. Such semiconductor test equipment processes known logic inputs and senses expected outputs and is not related to testing of interconnection points in real time (i.e., dynamic testing).
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a new and novel apparatus and method for testing printed circuit boards and harnesses and/or providing a simulator having a large number of test points.